J.B. Maverick 2016年8月29日
風險和回報是分析任何投資都需要考慮的兩個基本因素。所有投資者都希望從他們的投資中獲得盡可能高的回報。然而，潛在回報必須和潛在風險平衡。為客戶投資進行適當的分析時，金融顧問或者資產經理必須為每個客戶創建準確的風險評估。風險評估使金融顧問能確定對每個投資者最適合的投資。
金融風險評估的要素
每個風險評估都涉及幾個關鍵因素，這些因素可以一起構成一個廣泛的綜合分析，分析中包含客戶面臨的風險和能最大化降低風險的投資。
風險評估中的第一個因素是風險承受容量，這是一個人當前財政情況允許其能承擔風險的最大水平。風險評估的這一部分是客戶能承擔損失的最大限額，無論損失的規模大小。風險承受容量還能使顧問了解客戶的投資組合將怎樣運作和當一個投資出現虧損或者盈利時變化的額度。
風險評估的第二個因素是風險需求。每個客戶與顧問讨論他們的投資目標，顧問則確定能達到客戶心中投資回報目標所需要承擔的風險。之後顧問需要確定客戶需要承受多大的風險以幫助客戶成功的實現投資目標。
風險評估的心理部分
在不嚴格的金融概念中風險評估包含上兩個組成部分，但是從心理概念來說還包含更多的因素。其中一個概念是對待風險的態度。本質上，對待風險的態度是客戶對必須承擔風險與這些風險對其生活和財政產生怎樣影響的理解。通常，一個金融顧問通過確定客戶對風險的態度做出進一步的風險評估，在確定客戶的風險承受力和風險需求之後對客戶對待風險的態度做進一步的評估。
風險承受力也是每個風險評估中的關鍵因素。有時會被與風險容量混淆，風險承受力的區別在於它是客戶對投資風險水平和長短期可能風險的心理以及情感承受能力。通常，風險承受能力與之前的投資經驗高度相關。一些客戶的風險承受力為零。他們不能應對任何形式的投資損失，即使是臨時的也不行，無論潛在回報有多大。對於這些客戶，唯一合適的投資時提供確定回報率和無風險的固定收益投資，例如國債。
總結
對於需要做出準確風險和有效風險評估的金融顧問來說，他必須確定和評估上述因素並進行相互比較，然後為客戶做出一個明智的組合風險水平。完成風險評估使金融顧問能確定適合客戶的一般資產類別和特殊資產類別。風險承受力和風險容量都是和潛在回報相對的，金融顧問必須確定他們的客戶能了解這一點。
The Importance of a Client's Risk Assessment
By J.B. Maverick | August 29, 2016 — 1:00 PM EDT
Risk and return are two fundamental factors that must be considered in analyzing any investment. All investors want to make the highest possible return from their investments. However, potential return must always be balanced against potential risk. To analyze investments for individual clients properly, a financial advisor or money manager must create an accurate risk assessment, or risk profile, for each client. This risk assessment allows an advisor to determine the most suitable investments for each client to consider.
The Financial Elements of a Risk Assessment
Every risk assessment involves several key elements that can be used together to make up a broadly comprehensive analysis of the risk a client faces and the investments that best mitigate that risk or make the risk worthwhile.
The first element of a risk assessment is risk capacity, the maximum level of risk that an individual can afford to take based on his or her financial circumstances. This portion of the risk assessment is a quantification of the client's total ability to absorb a loss, whether the loss is small, moderate or large. The capacity for risk also provides the advisor with an understanding of how the client's portfolio will function and the rate of change financially if a specific investment results in either a loss or a gain.
The second element of a risk assessment is risk requirement. Each client discusses his or her investment objectives with the advisor, and each advisor understands that a certain amount of risk is necessary to meet the investment return objectives that the client has in mind. The advisor then must determine what calculated investment risks must be taken to assist the client with meeting his or her investment goals successfully.
The Psychological Components of Risk Assessment
There are two key elements of a risk assessment that are not strictly financial concepts, but are more in the realm of psychological concepts. One such concept is the attitude to risk. Essentially, the attitude to risk is the client's understanding of risk in terms of what it entails and how it will affect the client's life and finances. Typically, a financial advisor further develops a risk assessment by determining the client's attitude toward risk at the outset, then reassessing the client's risk attitude after determining the client's risk capacity and risk requirements.
Risk tolerance is also a key psychological element of every risk assessment. Sometimes confused with risk capacity, risk tolerance differs in that it is the client's mental and emotional ability to tolerate chances taken on investments, given the level of risk, and how psychologically capable the client is at handling losses or overall volatility in both the short term and long term. Frequently, tolerance for risk highly correlates with previous investment experiences. Some clients have zero risk tolerance. They cannot deal with any sort of investment loss, not even a temporary one, no matter what the potential investment return is. For such clients, the only appropriate investments are fixed-income investments that provide a guaranteed rate of return and virtually no risk, such as U.S. Treasury bonds.
The Bottom Line
For a financial advisor to develop an accurate and effective risk assessment or profile, he or she must determine and assess each of the above-mentioned characteristics independently in order to compare them to each other and then combine them into a sensible investment risk level for a given client. Completing a risk assessment enables a financial advisor to determine general classes of assets and specific types of investments that are most appropriate for a given client. Both risk tolerance and risk capacity are constraints on potential investment returns, and advisors must make sure that their clients understand this fact.
本文翻譯由兄弟財經提供
文章來源：http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing-strategy/082916/importance-clients-risk-assessment.asp